Lucy and Joey update
I got a few good pictures over the holiday so I thought I would take this opportunity to update everyone on Lucy and Joey. Thanksgiving was awesome! Its my favorite holiday of the year, but I'm SUPER slammed with work right now and I was feeling guilty the whole time for neglecting my work.
Lucy is finally making progress with her IBD. Last I posted we switched her to Hill z/d which consists of hydrolized chicken as the protein source. It was a total disaster. She became anorexic, had vomiting, and explosive diarrhea. After about a week and a half, we abruptly switched her to Purina HA which, BTW, is even more crap than Hills. The primary ingredient is starch and the second is hydrolized soy protein isolate. Yeah. Like I said. Total crap. BUT. She is progressing really nicely on it! Her appetite is stable, she eats slower and chews her kibble, and in the last three days has had her first three well formed stools in months! I'm hoping she won't have to stay on it for too long, but we have definitely stopped the downward spiral. :-)
Joey, on the other hand, had a horrible week. We've been working very hard on his fear of objects and making tons of progress. Unfortunately, with every fear we progress on, another one shows up. He was totally stressed and skittish the entire time my family was here. He was panting a lot, breathing really quickly even while sleeping, and spent most of the time hiding in a corner. He even had 4 hectic fear barking episodes directed at some poor little girl in the park, my sister twice, and my mom. My mom's episode was the worst. My mom was napping in a chair, and Joey went up and licked her hand. Very cute. Then he was playing with a chew toy a few feet away. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, he popped up and starting barking at my mom like crazy. I was able to redirect him after about 30 seconds. The worrying part is that it wasn't precipitated by anything we could see. My mom was sleeping the entire time.
I spoke with his behaviorist and his vet yesterday and we're going to be starting him on either some generalized anti-anxiety medication or thyroid meds pending the outcome of his bloodwork. Poor guy.
Now for the spam!
My family stayed at my house for thanksgiving (4 extra people) and we had two additional guests for the meal. Lucy was in heaven. Four people to swoon over her cuteness and give her affection. My dad was the only one staying here that was sorta a dog person. But Lucy has totally changed the other 3's opinions on dogs. They all LOVE her, and have become much more confident with dogs in general as a result of interacting with her.
Here's a shot of Lucy hanging with my dad:
A couple of Lucy napping on my mom (you can really see how much weight she's lost recently :-():
And one of Lucy snuggling with my sister's butt:
Lucy and Joey spent a lot of time in the kitchen while we were preparing the meal (my whole family takes part in helping out). They preferred to hang out in Lucy's crate together since there were 5 of us walking around the kitchen. It was super cute:
Joey spent most of his time hiding away from the action, although he didn't want to be too far way:
I did manage to coax him out at one point for some treats, which of course Lucy went nuts for:
Lucy is finally making progress with her IBD. Last I posted we switched her to Hill z/d which consists of hydrolized chicken as the protein source. It was a total disaster. She became anorexic, had vomiting, and explosive diarrhea. After about a week and a half, we abruptly switched her to Purina HA which, BTW, is even more crap than Hills. The primary ingredient is starch and the second is hydrolized soy protein isolate. Yeah. Like I said. Total crap. BUT. She is progressing really nicely on it! Her appetite is stable, she eats slower and chews her kibble, and in the last three days has had her first three well formed stools in months! I'm hoping she won't have to stay on it for too long, but we have definitely stopped the downward spiral. :-)
Joey, on the other hand, had a horrible week. We've been working very hard on his fear of objects and making tons of progress. Unfortunately, with every fear we progress on, another one shows up. He was totally stressed and skittish the entire time my family was here. He was panting a lot, breathing really quickly even while sleeping, and spent most of the time hiding in a corner. He even had 4 hectic fear barking episodes directed at some poor little girl in the park, my sister twice, and my mom. My mom's episode was the worst. My mom was napping in a chair, and Joey went up and licked her hand. Very cute. Then he was playing with a chew toy a few feet away. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, he popped up and starting barking at my mom like crazy. I was able to redirect him after about 30 seconds. The worrying part is that it wasn't precipitated by anything we could see. My mom was sleeping the entire time.
I spoke with his behaviorist and his vet yesterday and we're going to be starting him on either some generalized anti-anxiety medication or thyroid meds pending the outcome of his bloodwork. Poor guy.
Now for the spam!
My family stayed at my house for thanksgiving (4 extra people) and we had two additional guests for the meal. Lucy was in heaven. Four people to swoon over her cuteness and give her affection. My dad was the only one staying here that was sorta a dog person. But Lucy has totally changed the other 3's opinions on dogs. They all LOVE her, and have become much more confident with dogs in general as a result of interacting with her.
Here's a shot of Lucy hanging with my dad:
A couple of Lucy napping on my mom (you can really see how much weight she's lost recently :-():
And one of Lucy snuggling with my sister's butt:
Lucy and Joey spent a lot of time in the kitchen while we were preparing the meal (my whole family takes part in helping out). They preferred to hang out in Lucy's crate together since there were 5 of us walking around the kitchen. It was super cute:
Joey spent most of his time hiding away from the action, although he didn't want to be too far way:
I did manage to coax him out at one point for some treats, which of course Lucy went nuts for:
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Comments
I love the first begging picture where Lucy's on her hind legs. The way they naturally turn their paws inward really makes her look like she's pleading. Thanks for the spam, I'm glad you were able to convert your family into dog tolerators:).
Jesse
Thanks for the spam. Lucy and Joey are both beautiful! I am glad that they both pups had a good time over Thanksgiving. And your table looks awesome with the pine cones and leaves!
sorry about joey's issues... hope the bloodwork provides some answers. Have you considered melatonin? That has really helped Hachi in her new situation.
Also, this month's Whole Dog Journal has a segment on low fat diets specifically for dogs who suffer from pancreatitis or IBD. If you dont' get it, I can mail it to you, I've already read it.
Sorry to hear that Joey is having such fear issues, however it could be just a stage, as he is still so young.
I hope the progress with Lucy continues too!
Poor Lucy & Joey, extra love for them
& I can't resist Dave...you have a shiny chrome like your dad!
Glad lucy is doing well, sorry to hear about joeman!
Hate to hear about joey - hopefully things will improve soon on that front.
PS - hopefully the draft from the door frame didn't interupt dinner...
----
Osy: LOL! Yeah, all the men going back at least 3 generations in my family have had shiny domes. I accepted it as inevitable when I was pretty young.
Patty: Lucy's feeding plan is somewhat up in the air right now. I just want her to stabilize and put some weight back on. At her lowest, she dropped to just over 14 pounds from 16.5. In about 2 months, if she continues to do well, we'll consider a rotation diet of novel proteins for her. It seems that her time frame acquiring new allergies is about a month, so we'd probably put her on a 3 week rotation diet with 3 different proteins sources. The danger there is that if one of them doesn't work, then all three of them are out and there aren't that many novel protein sources out there. Cooking for her is high on my list of things to discuss with her nutritionist though.
Bev: Lucy balances like that by waving her paws up and down. Like this:
Jesse
Sorry about Joey. Keep us posted on his progress. Good luck.
Glad the holiday was good for you guys, hope Joey feels better...
I just spoke to his vet. His blood work came back completely normal, so we'll be starting him on Prozac. I half laughed when she told me that.